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10 Spooky Halloween Party Appetizer, Snack & Dessert Recipes

If you’re a foodie, Halloween is just as much about the treats as it is the tricks. Halloween food recipes give you a chance to flex your creative cooking muscles. You can transform a once mild-mannered cookie into a witch’s hat, or a simple bowl of salsa into a bloody snack. After all, Halloween is the only holiday when your guests thank you for serving them brains, severed fingers, and eyeballs.

These recipes cover everything from appetizers, to the main course, to desserts galore. Best of all, these simple recipes contain only a few ingredients, so you can assemble your Halloween party food cheaply and quickly.

Easy Halloween Food Recipes

1. Witch Hat Cookies

Decorate your Halloween party table with fun Halloween-themed accessories. Attach plastic spiders to napkin rings, use black paper bats on top of cookie plates, and place orange votive candles around the table for a spooky good time.

Witch Hat cookies charm party guests and work well with your Halloween-themed decor. Even the most inexperienced chef can make these easy, no-bake cookies. A Hershey kiss is placed on top of a store-bought cookie, and wrapped with a little icing to create a tiny witch hat.

Ingredients

1 package of Hershey’s Kisses

1 package of round chocolate covered cookies

1 small container of chocolate icing

red decorator’s gel icing pen

Directions

Lay one cookie on a flat cooking surface.

Unwrap a Hershey’s Kiss. Place a small amount of chocolate icing on the bottom of the Hershey’s Kiss and press it onto the center of the cookie.

Use the squeezable icing to create a ring around the kiss, like you would see around a hat. Repeat for each cookie.

Pro Tip: Run the icing tube back and forth in your hands for a few seconds to warm the icing. This makes the icing easier to apply to the cookies.

2. Spooky Chips and Dip

You can use Halloween cookie cutters for more than just making cookies. You can also use them to make tortilla chips, which you can pair with some red salsa for a festive snack. Create ghoulish notes describing your Halloween treats. Cut out paper jack o’ lanterns, bats, or skulls, and use them to display creepy goodies like Spooky Chips and Dip.

Ingredients

1 package of white flour tortillas

cooking spray

1 jar of salsa

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Place a tortilla on a flat cooking surface. Press the cookie cutter into the tortilla and gently pry the shape free.

Spray each side with cooking spray and place on a cookie sheet. Repeat for the remaining tortillas.

Bake for six minutes. Rotate the pan and bake for an additional seven minutes, or until brown.

Season with salt to taste.

Serve alongside the salsa.

Pro Tip: If you have trouble getting the cookie cutter through the tortilla, heat the tortilla in the microwave for a few seconds. This makes the breading softer and easier to cut.

3. Brain Punch

Grocery stores and hobby and craft retailers sell molds in the shape of brains during the Halloween season. Use these cheap molds to make an easy theme punch.

Serve the punch in ghostly cups that you make at home. Using ordinary paper, plastic, or Styrofoam cups, and use a black Sharpie marker to draw faces on each of the cups. You can also paste paper pumpkin cut-outs to the cups when serving brain punch to guests.

Ingredients

1 package of strawberry JELL-O

1 container of frozen fruit punch

Directions

Mix the JELL-O according to the package instructions.

Pour the JELL-O into the mold and allow it to chill completely.

Fill a punch bowl with the fruit punch mix and water. Place the fruit punch in the fridge and allow it to chill.

Immediately before serving, slowly lower the brain mold into the center of the fruit punch.

Pro Tip: Do not overfill the punch bowl. Make sure you allow for enough room for the top of the brain to rest on top of the punch.

4. Severed Fingers

You can quickly turn a few almonds and some crescent roll dough into creepy severed fingers to serve at a Halloween party. Once baked, you can arrange these around a bowl of dip or piled onto a serving plate. They look pretty realistic.

Black, orange, and silver dishes all work well on your Halloween party table. During September and October you can also find Halloween-themed paper plates at party stores to display your Severed Fingers.

Ingredients

1 package of pre-cut crescent roll dough

1 6-ounce container of sliced almonds

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Unroll one crescent roll square onto a flat cooking surface.

Grab one of the longer ends and gently roll the dough into a finger shape.

Press a sliced almond into one end of the dough with the white side facing outward, to make a fingernail.

Use a butter knife to cut small lines slightly below the almond and across the middle of the dough, to create knuckles.

Place the dough on a cookie sheet. Repeat for the remaining dough squares.

Bake for 10 to 12 minutes, or until slightly brown.

Pro Tip: You can use red food coloring to dye the almonds. The red food coloring makes the almond look like a painted fingernail.

5. Mini Mummies

With mini bagels and a few ingredients, you can create spooky toasted pizzas that look like mummy faces. Prepare Mini Mummies ahead of time, and then pop them into the stove to bake during the party. That way, everyone can enjoy the tasty treats right out of the oven.

Ingredients

1 package of mini bagels

1 jar of premade pizza sauce

6 to 10 mozzarella cheese sticks

1 jar of stuffed green olives

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Slice a mini bagel in half and lay the bagel on a flat cooking surface.

Spread one tablespoon of pizza sauce across the inside of the bagel half.

Pull a cheese stick into strings. Starting at the bottom, lay the pieces of cheese across 2/3 of the bagel to look like bandages.

Slice a green olive into flat pieces. Place two green olives near the top of the bagel to look like eyes.

Place a few more cheese sticks just above the eyes to look like head wrappings.

Place the bagel half on a cookie sheet. Repeat for the remaining bagel halves.

Bake for 10 minutes, or until the cheese is slightly melted.

Pro Tip: Leave a small amount of space between each cheese strip. After the cheese melts, the tiny slits will look more like bandages.

6. Frozen Ghosts

Bananas, icing, and chocolate combine to make these frozen ghosts on sticks. Best of all, this no-bake recipe is kid-friendly, so your little ones can help out in the kitchen, too. Frozen Ghosts have to chill out for a total of five to six hours, so make them the night before the party.

Ingredients

6 ripe bananas

1 package of vanilla icing

12 ounce bag of semi-sweet chocolate chips

12 Popsicle sticks

Directions

Peel the bananas and remove any excess strings.

Cut the banana in half and push a Popsicle stick through the cut end, being careful not to push the stick all the way through the banana.

Line a cookie sheet with wax paper and place the bananas on top.

Freeze the bananas until solid, about two and a half hours.

Remove the frozen bananas. Use a butter knife or spatula to cover each banana with vanilla icing. Add three chocolate chips for the eyes and mouth.

Place the bananas back on the cookie sheet and put them in the fridge until chilled, about three hours.

Serve cold.

Pro Tip: You can substitute brown decorator’s icing gel for the chocolate chips.

7. Chocolate-Coated Spiders

These snacks are addicting and simple to make. All you need is chocolate, peanut butter, and pretzels to create these realistic looking spiders. Chocolate-coated spiders need to rest in the fridge for four hours before you can serve them, so make these the night before your party.

Ingredients

12-ounce package of semi-sweet chocolate baking squares

2/3 cup smooth peanut butter

8 cups of pretzel sticks

Directions

Combine half the chocolate baking squares and the peanut butter in a microwave-safe dish.

Microwave on high for 2-3 minutes, stirring frequently until the chocolate and peanut butter melt and blend.

Break up 4 cups of the pretzel sticks and add them to the chocolate and peanut butter mix. Blend well.

Line a cookie sheet with wax paper. Drop a spoonful of the mixture onto the wax paper to create the spider body.

Microwave the remaining chocolate squares in a microwave safe dish until melted.

Dip one end of a pretzel stick into the chocolate. Gently press the coated end of the pretzel stick on to the body of the spider to create a leg. Repeat for the other seven legs.

Pop the finished cookies in the fridge until firm, about four hours.

Pro Tip: Sort the pretzel sticks before adding them to the chocolate and peanut butter mixture. Some of the pretzel sticks will break in the bag, so this way you can reserve the full sticks for the legs.

8. Dirt Pails

Pudding dirt and worm cups are a much beloved kid’s favorite, mostly because they look gross and a little creepy. However, they’re also a tasty theme snack for an adult’s Halloween party. Repurpose plastic cups into individual serving dishes for this recipe. Add googly eyes to the outside of the cups to up the level of creepiness in your Dirt Pails.

Ingredients

1 package of chocolate pudding mix

2 cups of milk

1 package of Oreo cookies

1 package of gummy worms

12 plastic cups

Directions

Mix the pudding mix and milk according to the package instructions. Set aside.

Use a food processor or a cooking mallet to crush the Oreo cookies into fine pieces that resemble dirt.

Mix one cup of the Oreo pieces into the pudding mixture.

Fill 3/4 of a plastic cup with pudding and top with crushed Oreo cookies.

Place 1-3 gummy worms on the top of the cup.

Place the cups in the fridge until chilled, about two hours.

Pro Tip: To make the gummy worms look more authentic, press half the gummy worm into the Oreo cookie mixture to give the appearance of a worm crawling out of the dirt, or hang a worm off the side of the cup.

9. All-Seeing Eye

You can create a quick and spooky centerpiece with a pie from your local bakery store. A bit of decorator’s icing turns the pie into a giant eye that follows your guests around the buffet table. The whipped topping needs to thaw and the pie needs to chill before serving, so make this All-Seeing Eye at least one hour before guests arrive.

Ingredients

1 banana cream pie

1 container of frozen whipped topping

1 kiwi

1 maraschino cherry

1 tube of red gel icing

Directions

Allow the whipped topping to thaw, about 30 minutes.

Cover the entire pie with the whipped topping to create the surface of the eye.

Peel and slice the kiwi.

Place one kiwi slice in the center of the pie.

Place the maraschino on top of the kiwi and hold in place with a toothpick, to look like an iris and pupil of the eye.

Using the red gel icing, draw squiggly lines from the kiwi out to the edge of the pie, to look like a bloodshot eye.

Serve chilled.

Pro Tip: Use a vegetable peeler to peel the kiwi. The peeler will allow you to keep most of the fruit intact and circular shaped, while a knife creates pointed edges.

10. Grave Robber Chili

A coffin made from cornbread and stuffed with chili makes up this perfectly themed Halloween dish. Begin making this Grave Robber Chili two hours before the party begins, then stow the dish in a warm oven to serve when guests arrive.

Ingredients

For coffin:

2 packages of cornbread mix

2/3 cup of milk

2 eggs

black food coloring

ketchup

For chili:

1/2 pound of hamburger

1/2 cup onion, chopped

1/2 cup bell pepper, chopped

1/2 cup pinto beans

1/2 cup black beans

1 4-ounce can of tomato paste

1 packet of chili seasoning

2 cups of water

Directions

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.

Mix the cornbread mix, milk, eggs, and 3-4 drops of food coloring in a medium bowl until moist and sticky.

Pour the mixture into a 9 inch by 5 inch bread loaf pan.

Bake the cornbread for 30 minutes, or until cooked entirely.

Shred the hamburger into small pieces.

Cook the hamburger in a large skillet over medium-high heat until no longer pink.

Final Word

Finalize your Halloween dinner or party buffet by adding some Halloween decorations to your table. Add a few red candles to give the area a spooky feel, or toss some specimen jars on the table to create an eerie centerpiece. Wrap the chairs with artificial spider webs made from torn white cheesecloth.

Incorporate these Halloween treats to make your party table festive. On Halloween, we can all act like kids again and let our imaginations run wild.

Angela Colley is a freelance writer living in New Orleans, Louisiana with a background in mortgage and real estate. Her interests include animal rights advocacy, green living, mob movies and finding the best deal on everything. She blames her extreme passion for never paying full price on two parents that taught her that a penny saved is two pennies if invested wisely.

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